After a two-week winter break, Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) saw a rise in COVID-19 cases, resulting in several absences during the week students returned for in-person instruction.
Here’s what a few students have to say.
Photos by Anneliese Duong.
“I’m really sad that we have to return to school because a lot of people are getting sick. I don’t think it’s the right decision for us to be staying in school. I think the school should not let the students go to school. Some changes I see in the classroom are that students are missing or absent. The teachers sent out more precautions to their students and then made video notes for people who want to go online or are staying at home. They’ve been telling us to double mask. I don’t think we should be going to school because we’re in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic,” sophomore Donald Ton said.
“I’m a little scared but I know everybody should be wearing masks. I think that returning to school was fine as long as everybody is wearing a mask. My classes are really empty but teachers are trying to keep us healthy. And we’re trying to clean our classes more often,” freshman Ritsu Tran said.
“I’m a bit concerned about the lack of people being here because, since break, there’s been a huge lack of students attending. I think [the school] should have at least done something about the COVID cases, especially with Omicron rising. We need more testing at school probably. If there is any testing, I’m willing to take it. I’d say [that FVHS handled the return] poorly just because if we actually did a better job, there would be more students here. And maybe if they did something about the fear about COVID, I’m sure more students would attend,” sophomore Benjamin Cao said.
“I think that it’s irresponsible of the school and it puts many students [in] danger because there are students and teachers who have other medical reasons. Like they can’t get the vaccine or they need to go online to protect themselves or their family members are who are immunocompromised. So it just puts more people in danger and I think it’s just really irresponsible of the school. They should have just made us go online. We went online for a whole year, what’s so bad about us going online for a couple more months or week? I’ve seen no changes. There are teachers who still don’t wear masks. I think [FVHS] handled it poorly, very poorly. They gave in to the parents and sacrificed a lot of students’ mental health and physical health, which is really important. Dear Mr. Lopez, bring us back onto Zoom or Google Meets,” junior Bianca Do said.
“I think we should go online because it is safer for our health and we hit one million cases nationally. I don’t see the necessity of going to school when options like Zoom are available. Especially when UCs aka public schools are doing it for at least two weeks. All of my friends are gone. At least five of them were out with COVID. That makes me think about how I didn’t know anyone with COVID before and all of a sudden, it hits our community really badly. So I’m here thinking, ‘What if it’s me next? I don’t want to get sick and stay home and be knocked out for five-plus days.’ I want to go online,” senior Kenneth Nguyen said.
“I think that it’s alright if we return to school in person. We just need to make sure that we have more precautions like I know that I saw we actually wiped down all the desks. I noticed that not a lot of teachers do that and I like that we’re putting our health into perspective. I noticed that we didn’t get any information from the district office about what was going to go on. I know other districts did that so I would have preferred for us to get more information about what precautions we’re going to be doing or some updates about what’s going to happen with school as COVID cases are going up. I’m just hopeful that we’re going to be able to limit the amount of cases we get at our campus because right now, it seems to be limited pretty well. Hopefully, we’re going on a good track,” junior Chloe Chang said.
“I don’t feel quite too concerned because I think everyone’s following COVID CDC protocols and the guidelines. I do feel safe with everyone like having a mask around their face but, at the same time, with COVID cases rising, I’d be quite concerned [with] sitting to people right next to me [and with] people out [and] people absent. And looking at the COVID cases that have been rising, I don’t feel too safe at school anymore, but it’s okay. I haven’t seen anyone catching a COVID case at school yet. So it’s just been like outside of school so far. Hopefully, it stays that way. I don’t think there’s much you can do about this situation unless we want to go back to hybrid or online school. I think the school handled [the return] pretty well because a lot of people called in sick and like, just in case, [are] staying safe, staying at home. I think that it’s great for people to have some self-awareness of themselves and how they protect others at school. I think we handled it great as students,” senior Joshua Dang said.
“I think we should not have returned because I heard that there were 560 absences, which is close to like 20% of our school. I think that is a shockingly high amount…I know there’s only like 12 or 20 confirmed cases of COVID…But I don’t think that the number is accurate at all because I personally know like five people who have already gotten COVID. So I don’t think that the school district has done a good job, especially letting us come back and everything. I’ve noticed that a lot of my classes are more empty. Teachers have been adapting well. They’ve posted assignments like what we do in class. They also have been [teaching through] video, like making more videos so that students who are absent have access to the material we learn in class. So I think that’s a positive,” sophomore Phoebe Do said.
“Everyone’s gone in my classes. It just feels different in the classroom since there are less people. I feel like what [the school] has done right now is fine because I don’t think everyone getting COVID is their fault. I think they’re handling the issue of cases very well. I think FVHS handled the return pretty well because the way that everyone’s out means that they did a good job of getting people to stay home,” freshman Landon Cao said.
